Massive blow to Chennai, star player to miss season opener

It has been learnt that Chennai's Moeen Ali will miss the Indian T20 League season opener against Kolkata. The England all-rounder is stuck in the UK after failing to obtain the visa required to fly to India for the Indian T20 League.

Moeen had to travel to Mumbai by Wednesday to play his team's opening match against Kolkata, the 2021 runners-up. Given that Moeen would need to go through the obligatory three-day quarantine before entering the ITL bio-secure environment, he will miss the opening game of the tournament. Notably, he had applied for Visa about four weeks ago but that has not been approved by Indian High Commission in London yet.

Moeen was one of four players retained by Chennai ahead of the auction. He was instrumental in the team's fourth ITL triumph last year. In 2021, he was their third-highest scorer, with 357 runs scored in 15 innings at an average of 25.50 and a strike rate of 137.30. Moeen was sixth on the list of hitters with the most sixes, with a total of 19.

He was seen in a different role for the 2021 season as he played at number three. He has established himself as a floater in the batting order but Chennai will continue to play him at number three.

Moeen has retired from red-ball cricket and will now be able to concentrate on the white-ball game a lot better. This season is going to be very important for him to get into good form before the start of the 20-20 World Cup.

He had a vital role to play for England in the previous edition of the 20-20 World Cup. He helped them reach the semi-final in UAE last year.